Sunday, June 9, 2013

Perjury, and ethics and compliance

[Sometimes the obvious needs calling attention to.  The addressees of the below email are the directors of the Ethics & Compliance Officer Association, the Ethics Resource Center, and  the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics.]

[Note: there is also a second op/ed piece "The Economic Truth About Lying: HOW MUCH MONEY COULD BE SAVED IF PERJURERS FEARED BEING HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR THEIR LYING" that is posted at the link, and my email should have referred to that op/ed piece as well.]


From: RDShatt@aol.com
To: KDarcy@theecoa.org, pat@ethics.org, roy.snell@corporatecompliance.org
Sent: 6/9/2013 7:10:28 A.M. Central Daylight Time
Subj: Perjury in the Courtroom

Dear Mr. Darcy, Dr. Harned, and Mr. Snell,

This March 26, 2013 Wall Street Journal op/ed piece, entitled The Manhattan "Perjury" Project (and posted on my blog), raises, in another form, the important interface between the law and ethics and compliance.

Ethics and compliance need the law on their side, and to be supportive and setting a good example. If the law is complacent and tolerant of lying in the courtroom, that affects people's attitude about lying in general and their practices to lie or not. Such is not good for ethics and compliance.

I know this is obvious, but sometimes the obvious needs calling attention to.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Rob Shattuck